Coup in Myanmar, arrested Aung San Suu Kyi (de facto head of government and Nobel Prize winner) – Corriere.it

Myanmar in chaos. The de facto head of the government, Aung San Suu Kyi (1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner) was arrested by the armed forces. This was stated by the spokesman for his party, the National League for Democracy (NLD). We hear that a detainee in Naypyidaw (the capital of the country, ed), we assume the military is staging a coup, said Myo Nyunt. But during the night between Sunday what was a rumor was confirmed in a statement issued by the Armed Forces. All powers in Myanmar were transferred to General Min Aung Hlaing. The decision was announced by the army shortly after the announcement of the state of emergency for one year and the interim presidency entrusted to General Myint Swe, who was one of the two acting vice presidents. The military has been reporting wrongdoing for several weeks during the November legislative elections, overwhelmingly won by the NLD.

The Army Communiqué: We Respect the Constitution

The situation is really uncertain. There would have been other arrests of politicians. The army in recent days had assured that it wanted to protect and respect the Constitution, this with a statement that came in the last hours after growing fears of a coup, completed with exhortations from the UN and the international community to respect the law. democratic rules. The Tatmadaw (the official name of the national armed forces) respects the current Constitution and will respect the law. Organizations and the media misinterpreted the commander-in-chief’s speech and formulated his point of view, the army statement wrote, alluding to a Wednesday speech by the head of the armed forces Min Aung Hlaing in which he mentioned the possibility of repealing the Constitution of the country. But then, as mentioned, everything fell apart with the arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Fraud allegations

In recent weeks, the army has denounced widespread irregularities in last November’s elections, in which the Aung San Suu Kyi National League for Democracy triumphed. The Electoral Commission has denied the existence of fraud, although it admits some inaccuracies in the electoral lists. Today (Monday) the inauguration of Parliament is expected after the November vote. In the gradual transition from dictatorship to democracy that began in 2011, there is a delicate balance of power in Burma among the military, which controls 25 percent (giving it the power to veto any changes to the Constitution) of the seats in Parliament and three key ministries, and the de facto civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi active for many years in the defense of human rights on the national stage of his country, oppressed by a rigid military dictatorship, which forced it to live for a long time. in a state of house arrest, consolidating himself as the leader of the opposition movement, so much so that he deserved the Rafto and Sakharov prizes (the latter suspended in 2020), before receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.